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Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light: Fifty Poems for Fifty Years
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Best Poetry (2022)Over a long, influential career in poetry, Joy Harjo has been praised for her “warm, oracular voice” (John Freeman, Boston Globe) that speaks “from a deep and timeless source of compassion for all” (Craig Morgan Teicher, NPR). Her poems are musical, intimate, political, and wise, intertwining ancestral memory and tribal histories with resilience and love.
In this gemlike volume, Harjo selects her best poems from across fifty years, beginning with her early discoveries of her own voice and ending with moving reflections on our contemporary moment. Generous notes on each poem offer insight into Harjo’s inimitable poetics as she takes inspiration from Navajo horse songs and jazz, reckons with home and loss, and listens to the natural messengers of the earth. As evidenced in this transcendent collection, Joy Harjo’s “poetry is light and elixir, the very best prescription for us in wounded times” (Sandra Cisneros, Millions).
In this gemlike volume, Harjo selects her best poems from across fifty years, beginning with her early discoveries of her own voice and ending with moving reflections on our contemporary moment. Generous notes on each poem offer insight into Harjo’s inimitable poetics as she takes inspiration from Navajo horse songs and jazz, reckons with home and loss, and listens to the natural messengers of the earth. As evidenced in this transcendent collection, Joy Harjo’s “poetry is light and elixir, the very best prescription for us in wounded times” (Sandra Cisneros, Millions).
160 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2022
About the author
Joy Harjo
88 books1,805 followersBio Joy Harjo
Joy Harjo was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma and is a member of the Mvskoke Nation. She has released four award-winning CD's of original music and won a Native American Music Award (NAMMY) for Best Female Artist of the Year. She performs nationally and internationally solo and with her band, The Arrow Dynamics. She has appeared on HBO's Def Poetry Jam, in venues in every major U.S. city and internationally. Most recently she performed We Were There When Jazz Was Invented at the Chan Centre at UBC in Vancouver, BC, and appeared at the San Miguel Writer’s Conference in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Her one-woman show, Wings of Night Sky, Wings of Morning Light, which features guitarist Larry Mitchell premiered in Los Angeles in 2009, with recent performances at Joe’s Pub in New York City, LaJolla Playhouse as part of the Native Voices at the Autry, and the University of British Columbia. Her seven books of poetry include such well-known titles as How We Became Human- New and Selected Poems and She Had Some Horses. Her awards include the New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas, and the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America. She was recently awarded 2011 Artist of the Year from the Mvskoke Women’s Leadership Initiative, and a Rasmuson US Artists Fellowship. She is a founding board member and treasurer of the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation. Harjo writes a column Comings and Goings for her tribal newspaper, the Muscogee Nation News. Soul Talk, Song Language, Conversations with Joy Harjo was recently released from Wesleyan University Press. Crazy Brave, a memoir is her newest publication from W.W. Norton, and a new album of music is being produced by the drummer/producer Barrett Martin. She is at work on a new shows: We Were There When Jazz Was Invented, a musical story that proves southeastern indigenous tribes were part of the origins of American music. She lives in the Mvskoke Nation of Oklahoma.
Joy Harjo was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma and is a member of the Mvskoke Nation. She has released four award-winning CD's of original music and won a Native American Music Award (NAMMY) for Best Female Artist of the Year. She performs nationally and internationally solo and with her band, The Arrow Dynamics. She has appeared on HBO's Def Poetry Jam, in venues in every major U.S. city and internationally. Most recently she performed We Were There When Jazz Was Invented at the Chan Centre at UBC in Vancouver, BC, and appeared at the San Miguel Writer’s Conference in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Her one-woman show, Wings of Night Sky, Wings of Morning Light, which features guitarist Larry Mitchell premiered in Los Angeles in 2009, with recent performances at Joe’s Pub in New York City, LaJolla Playhouse as part of the Native Voices at the Autry, and the University of British Columbia. Her seven books of poetry include such well-known titles as How We Became Human- New and Selected Poems and She Had Some Horses. Her awards include the New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas, and the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America. She was recently awarded 2011 Artist of the Year from the Mvskoke Women’s Leadership Initiative, and a Rasmuson US Artists Fellowship. She is a founding board member and treasurer of the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation. Harjo writes a column Comings and Goings for her tribal newspaper, the Muscogee Nation News. Soul Talk, Song Language, Conversations with Joy Harjo was recently released from Wesleyan University Press. Crazy Brave, a memoir is her newest publication from W.W. Norton, and a new album of music is being produced by the drummer/producer Barrett Martin. She is at work on a new shows: We Were There When Jazz Was Invented, a musical story that proves southeastern indigenous tribes were part of the origins of American music. She lives in the Mvskoke Nation of Oklahoma.
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November 1, 2022
‘Transfix us with love.’
Joy Harjo is a national treasure. Three-term US Poet Laureate, author of nine poetry collections and editor of several anthologies, a Ruth Lilly Prize Winner, and recipient of numerous fellowships, Harjo is an incredible voice in poetry. Whenever she comes up I always blurt out “oh hell yea!” and try to direct people to her music, because who doesn’t want to hear Harjo rocking the saxophone or reciting her poetry over awesome jazz/blues fusion. Which I will direct you to this track, which is the title poem from her most recent collection, An American Sunrise. Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light is a beautiful selected poems collection that celebrates Harjo’s 50 years as a poet with 50 poems from her catalog. I have somehow neglected to ever review her and this seems a great opportunity as this collection makes for a lovely introduction to her work and includes a foreword by her friend and fellow writer Sandra Cisneros. With an art that combines her passion for oral tradition and music, Harjo’s poems are a special magic of storytelling that gives voice to indigenous people and the land, threading poetry through themes of grief, community and communal living with nature to create a beautiful American story.
Harjo playing saxophone in the Library of Congress
Each year my local community participates in the NEA Big Read and last year we read Harjo’s An American Sunrise, which was an incredible experience. Especially when I was able to attend the live Zoom chat with her and even got to speak with her and ask a few questions (one of which was ‘can you play us another song?!’ after she had shown us a track from her recent album earlier in her presentation. She was excited to oblige.) But to hear her speak about her art was very moving and inspiring, particularly as she imparts wisdom with such a calm and caring demeanor that shows she truly cares about art, about words, about nature and about people. Just a lovely person. One of the best aspects of this collection is that she includes, in the notes section, a few paragraphs about each poem in the book. It is just as interesting and thought-provoking as the poems themselves and I love when writers are willing to reach out beyond their works and discuss them with readers.
Remember
Remember the sky that you were born under,
know each of the star's stories.
Remember the moon, know who she is.
Remember the sun's birth at dawn, that is the
strongest point of time. Remember sundown
and the giving away to night.
Remember your birth, how your mother struggled
to give you form and breath. You are evidence of
her life, and her mother's, and hers.
Remember your father. He is your life, also.
Remember the earth whose skin you are:
red earth, black earth, yellow earth, white earth
brown earth, we are earth.
Remember the plants, trees, animal life who all have their
tribes, their families, their histories, too. Talk to them,
listen to them. They are alive poems.
Remember the wind. Remember her voice. She knows the
origin of this universe.
Remember you are all people and all people
are you.
Remember you are this universe and this
universe is you.
Remember all is in motion, is growing, is you.
Remember language comes from this.
Remember the dance language is, that life is.
Remember.
The introduction from Cisneros alone is worth checking out this collection as well. The two attended the University of Iowa’s Writers’ Workshop together from 1976-1978, Harjo having ‘recently abandoned visual arts and declared herself a citizen of poetry.’ Both women of color, they found they often had their voices stifled or spoken over, and the theme of having a voice became a strong aspect of their works during this time, such as this poem they wrote together while in school, aptly titled Permission to Speak:
lately
i’ve turned to the river
to the starlings gathering there at twilight
moon in their throats
all i want is the music
anything
to keep me breathing
this dancing
this whirl of my heart
I love reading author I enjoy discuss authors they enjoy, and this was a great way to kick off a gorgeous collection of 50 of Harjo’s best works. It is a good selection, never feeling like too few poems, especially as every single one is amazing and all of my personal favorites are collected here. I have a public poetry project I’ve been doing for years and Harjo is definitely one of the poets I have posted around my town the most.
Fall Song
‘It is a dark fall day.
The earth is slightly damp with rain.
I hear a jay.
The cry is blue.
I have found you in the story again.
Is there another word for ‘‘divine’’?
I need a song that will keep sky open in my mind.
If I think behind me, I might break.
If I think forward, I lose now.
Forever will be a day like this
Strung perfectly on the necklace of days.
Slightly overcast
Yellow leaves
Your jacket hanging in the hallway
Next to mine.’
Harjo often gives voice to indigenous people, something she did well during her time serving as poet laureate by publishing two anthologies of Indigenous poetry, such as the big volume When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry which I also HIGHLY recommend. Harjo is straightforward with her discussions on the violence against indigenous nations over the course of US history. ‘We are still America. We know the rumors of our demise. We spit them out. They die soon,’ she writes in the poem An American Sunrise. Harjo is also so full of love and hope for a brighter future if we can come together, learn from the past and atone for it. ‘Forty years later and we still want justice,’ she writes, ‘We are still America. We.’ Her poems are always so moving and perfect.
‘We Move with the lightness of being, and we will go
Where there’s a place for us.’
-from Sunrise
This is such a lovely and well edited collection. It is a perfect introduction for those new to Harjo or looking for a good overview of her work, though fans of this amazing poet will also find it a rewarding collection to read the introduction and all of Harjo’s notes about the poems. Honestly, I feel like even readers who aren’t usually fans of poetry would enjoy these. Harjo is a trailblazing voice in American poetry that used her own voice to uplift the voices of others and should certainly be immortalized in history as one of the Great American Poets.
5/5
I Give You Back
I release you, my beautiful and terrible
fear. I release you. You were my beloved
and hated twin, but now, I don’t know you
as myself. I release you with all the
pain I would know at the death of
my children.
You are not my blood anymore.
I give you back to the soldiers
who burned down my house, beheaded my children,
raped and sodomized my brothers and sisters.
I give you back to those who stole the
food from our plates when we were starving.
I release you, fear, because you hold
these scenes in front of me and I was born
with eyes that can never close.
I release you
I release you
I release you
I release you
I am not afraid to be angry.
I am not afraid to rejoice.
I am not afraid to be black.
I am not afraid to be white.
I am not afraid to be hungry.
I am not afraid to be full.
I am not afraid to be hated.
I am not afraid to be loved.
to be loved, to be loved, fear.
Oh, you have choked me, but I gave you the leash.
You have gutted me but I gave you the knife.
You have devoured me, but I laid myself across the fire.
I take myself back, fear.
You are not my shadow any longer.
I won’t hold you in my hands.
You can’t live in my eyes, my ears, my voice
my belly, or in my heart my heart
my heart my heart
But come here, fear
I am alive and you are so afraid
of dying.
Joy Harjo is a national treasure. Three-term US Poet Laureate, author of nine poetry collections and editor of several anthologies, a Ruth Lilly Prize Winner, and recipient of numerous fellowships, Harjo is an incredible voice in poetry. Whenever she comes up I always blurt out “oh hell yea!” and try to direct people to her music, because who doesn’t want to hear Harjo rocking the saxophone or reciting her poetry over awesome jazz/blues fusion. Which I will direct you to this track, which is the title poem from her most recent collection, An American Sunrise. Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light is a beautiful selected poems collection that celebrates Harjo’s 50 years as a poet with 50 poems from her catalog. I have somehow neglected to ever review her and this seems a great opportunity as this collection makes for a lovely introduction to her work and includes a foreword by her friend and fellow writer Sandra Cisneros. With an art that combines her passion for oral tradition and music, Harjo’s poems are a special magic of storytelling that gives voice to indigenous people and the land, threading poetry through themes of grief, community and communal living with nature to create a beautiful American story.
Harjo playing saxophone in the Library of Congress
Each year my local community participates in the NEA Big Read and last year we read Harjo’s An American Sunrise, which was an incredible experience. Especially when I was able to attend the live Zoom chat with her and even got to speak with her and ask a few questions (one of which was ‘can you play us another song?!’ after she had shown us a track from her recent album earlier in her presentation. She was excited to oblige.) But to hear her speak about her art was very moving and inspiring, particularly as she imparts wisdom with such a calm and caring demeanor that shows she truly cares about art, about words, about nature and about people. Just a lovely person. One of the best aspects of this collection is that she includes, in the notes section, a few paragraphs about each poem in the book. It is just as interesting and thought-provoking as the poems themselves and I love when writers are willing to reach out beyond their works and discuss them with readers.
Remember
Remember the sky that you were born under,
know each of the star's stories.
Remember the moon, know who she is.
Remember the sun's birth at dawn, that is the
strongest point of time. Remember sundown
and the giving away to night.
Remember your birth, how your mother struggled
to give you form and breath. You are evidence of
her life, and her mother's, and hers.
Remember your father. He is your life, also.
Remember the earth whose skin you are:
red earth, black earth, yellow earth, white earth
brown earth, we are earth.
Remember the plants, trees, animal life who all have their
tribes, their families, their histories, too. Talk to them,
listen to them. They are alive poems.
Remember the wind. Remember her voice. She knows the
origin of this universe.
Remember you are all people and all people
are you.
Remember you are this universe and this
universe is you.
Remember all is in motion, is growing, is you.
Remember language comes from this.
Remember the dance language is, that life is.
Remember.
The introduction from Cisneros alone is worth checking out this collection as well. The two attended the University of Iowa’s Writers’ Workshop together from 1976-1978, Harjo having ‘recently abandoned visual arts and declared herself a citizen of poetry.’ Both women of color, they found they often had their voices stifled or spoken over, and the theme of having a voice became a strong aspect of their works during this time, such as this poem they wrote together while in school, aptly titled Permission to Speak:
lately
i’ve turned to the river
to the starlings gathering there at twilight
moon in their throats
all i want is the music
anything
to keep me breathing
this dancing
this whirl of my heart
I love reading author I enjoy discuss authors they enjoy, and this was a great way to kick off a gorgeous collection of 50 of Harjo’s best works. It is a good selection, never feeling like too few poems, especially as every single one is amazing and all of my personal favorites are collected here. I have a public poetry project I’ve been doing for years and Harjo is definitely one of the poets I have posted around my town the most.
Fall Song
‘It is a dark fall day.
The earth is slightly damp with rain.
I hear a jay.
The cry is blue.
I have found you in the story again.
Is there another word for ‘‘divine’’?
I need a song that will keep sky open in my mind.
If I think behind me, I might break.
If I think forward, I lose now.
Forever will be a day like this
Strung perfectly on the necklace of days.
Slightly overcast
Yellow leaves
Your jacket hanging in the hallway
Next to mine.’
Harjo often gives voice to indigenous people, something she did well during her time serving as poet laureate by publishing two anthologies of Indigenous poetry, such as the big volume When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry which I also HIGHLY recommend. Harjo is straightforward with her discussions on the violence against indigenous nations over the course of US history. ‘We are still America. We know the rumors of our demise. We spit them out. They die soon,’ she writes in the poem An American Sunrise. Harjo is also so full of love and hope for a brighter future if we can come together, learn from the past and atone for it. ‘Forty years later and we still want justice,’ she writes, ‘We are still America. We.’ Her poems are always so moving and perfect.
‘We Move with the lightness of being, and we will go
Where there’s a place for us.’
-from Sunrise
This is such a lovely and well edited collection. It is a perfect introduction for those new to Harjo or looking for a good overview of her work, though fans of this amazing poet will also find it a rewarding collection to read the introduction and all of Harjo’s notes about the poems. Honestly, I feel like even readers who aren’t usually fans of poetry would enjoy these. Harjo is a trailblazing voice in American poetry that used her own voice to uplift the voices of others and should certainly be immortalized in history as one of the Great American Poets.
5/5
I Give You Back
I release you, my beautiful and terrible
fear. I release you. You were my beloved
and hated twin, but now, I don’t know you
as myself. I release you with all the
pain I would know at the death of
my children.
You are not my blood anymore.
I give you back to the soldiers
who burned down my house, beheaded my children,
raped and sodomized my brothers and sisters.
I give you back to those who stole the
food from our plates when we were starving.
I release you, fear, because you hold
these scenes in front of me and I was born
with eyes that can never close.
I release you
I release you
I release you
I release you
I am not afraid to be angry.
I am not afraid to rejoice.
I am not afraid to be black.
I am not afraid to be white.
I am not afraid to be hungry.
I am not afraid to be full.
I am not afraid to be hated.
I am not afraid to be loved.
to be loved, to be loved, fear.
Oh, you have choked me, but I gave you the leash.
You have gutted me but I gave you the knife.
You have devoured me, but I laid myself across the fire.
I take myself back, fear.
You are not my shadow any longer.
I won’t hold you in my hands.
You can’t live in my eyes, my ears, my voice
my belly, or in my heart my heart
my heart my heart
But come here, fear
I am alive and you are so afraid
of dying.
November 22, 2022
"Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words." (Robert Frost)
No one expresses thought and emotion deeper than Joy Harjo. Harjo is a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation who has received a mulitude of honors in her lifetime. She served as the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States for three terms. She is the first Artist-in-Residence at the Bob Dylan Center. But she is the most superb depiction of simply a human who presses her heart softly upon the souls of others.
Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light are selected poems from the poet herself over 50 years of her unique writing. Each poem carries a certain impact that will catch your breath in its telling or will stop you short in your tracks in awe. She is gifted.
In I Give You Back, Harjo presses upon us the importance of release. "I release you, fear, because you hold these scenes in front of me and I was born with eyes that can never close." She speaks of her culture and the sins of the past. And yet she widens her scope into the pain, the trials, and the grief we hold so close to the surface that weighs upon us incessantly. Wise, wise words.
In Eagle Poem, Harjo states that we must take the utmost care and kindness in all things. "To pray you open your whole self to sky, to earth, to sun, to moon to one whole voice that is you." A true circle of motion. Oh, how we need to hear those words in today's world. That we are part of something far greater than ourselves.
Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light is a mere 124 pages. It is packed with emotional power from a woman who has lived in dark, uncertain patches of life only to gain incredible insight through it all. Her experiences are particular and also universal. Look for this book. It is a gift to give oneself and to pass on to others. So beautifully rendered.
No one expresses thought and emotion deeper than Joy Harjo. Harjo is a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation who has received a mulitude of honors in her lifetime. She served as the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States for three terms. She is the first Artist-in-Residence at the Bob Dylan Center. But she is the most superb depiction of simply a human who presses her heart softly upon the souls of others.
Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light are selected poems from the poet herself over 50 years of her unique writing. Each poem carries a certain impact that will catch your breath in its telling or will stop you short in your tracks in awe. She is gifted.
In I Give You Back, Harjo presses upon us the importance of release. "I release you, fear, because you hold these scenes in front of me and I was born with eyes that can never close." She speaks of her culture and the sins of the past. And yet she widens her scope into the pain, the trials, and the grief we hold so close to the surface that weighs upon us incessantly. Wise, wise words.
In Eagle Poem, Harjo states that we must take the utmost care and kindness in all things. "To pray you open your whole self to sky, to earth, to sun, to moon to one whole voice that is you." A true circle of motion. Oh, how we need to hear those words in today's world. That we are part of something far greater than ourselves.
Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light is a mere 124 pages. It is packed with emotional power from a woman who has lived in dark, uncertain patches of life only to gain incredible insight through it all. Her experiences are particular and also universal. Look for this book. It is a gift to give oneself and to pass on to others. So beautifully rendered.
January 2, 2023
Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light is a collection of 50 poems by Joy Harjo, the last United States Poet Laureate. In this collection, Harjo gathers and then discusses 50 poems she has written over the course of her 50-year career. The poems range in topic and change throughout the course of Harjo's life. Many of them focus on Harjo's identity as a Native American.
This was a lovely collection of poetry and a great way to start off 2023. I appreciated the reflective nature of an anthology of poetry spanning 50 years - it matched the mood for the new year perfectly.
** Thanks so much to Joy Harjo, W. W. Norton & Company, and NetGalley for this ARC! Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light is available now. **
This was a lovely collection of poetry and a great way to start off 2023. I appreciated the reflective nature of an anthology of poetry spanning 50 years - it matched the mood for the new year perfectly.
** Thanks so much to Joy Harjo, W. W. Norton & Company, and NetGalley for this ARC! Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light is available now. **
May 19, 2023
Joy Harjo, three term Poet Laureate of the United States, is considered the voice of Native Americans but actually she speaks for us all, to us all. In Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light, Harjo has selected fifty poems spanning her remarkable career and also provided an illuminating brief discussion of each one.
When I think of Joy Harjo writing, I envision her with her ear pressed to the earth with her eyes on the sky. She speaks as a biologist trained in nature rather than the classroom, as a historian of the heart. She speaks of love of the earth and all of its creatures. She speaks of social injustices with devastatingly powerful prose. She speaks of the old ways and the power of stories, music, and dance. Reading Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light will open you up, break you apart and put you back together. You don't need to love poetry to love this book.
I received a drc from the publisher via NetGalley.
When I think of Joy Harjo writing, I envision her with her ear pressed to the earth with her eyes on the sky. She speaks as a biologist trained in nature rather than the classroom, as a historian of the heart. She speaks of love of the earth and all of its creatures. She speaks of social injustices with devastatingly powerful prose. She speaks of the old ways and the power of stories, music, and dance. Reading Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light will open you up, break you apart and put you back together. You don't need to love poetry to love this book.
I received a drc from the publisher via NetGalley.
September 27, 2022
All poets understand the final uselessness of words.
from Bird by Jo Harjo
After I read Jo Harjo’s poem The Woman Hanging From the Thirteenth-Floor Window I could not get that image out of my head. A woman, all women, clinging with their fingers, hanging from a window, thinking “of all the women she has been, of all the men,” of the loneliness, and yet not alone, seeing all the other women hanging, either falling or climbing back in.
It’s shattering.
As a Native American woman, Harjo’s poems reflect the brutal reality of history. Washing My Mother’s Body, a poem so tender, so nostalgic, shares a history of a woman’s strength and struggle against the legacy of the “iron pot given to her by her Cherokee mother, whose mother gave it to her, given to her by the U.S. government on the Trail of Tears. “The story is all there, in her body,” and she remembers while she imagines washing her mother’s body because she could not in real life.
Harjo speaks truths with directness, fearlessly.
I’m not afraid of love
or its consequence of light.
It’s not easy to say this
or anything when my entrails
dangle between paradise
and fear.
I am ashamed
I never had the words
to carry a friend from her death
to the stars
correctly.
Or the words to keep
my people safe
from drought
or gunshot.
The stars who were created by words
are circling over this house
formed of calcium, of blood
this house
in danger of being torn apart
by stones of fear.
If these words can do anything
if these songs can do anything
I say bless this house
with stars.
Transfix us with love.
from The Creation Story by Jo Harjo
These poems seized me with their power.
I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.
from Bird by Jo Harjo
After I read Jo Harjo’s poem The Woman Hanging From the Thirteenth-Floor Window I could not get that image out of my head. A woman, all women, clinging with their fingers, hanging from a window, thinking “of all the women she has been, of all the men,” of the loneliness, and yet not alone, seeing all the other women hanging, either falling or climbing back in.
It’s shattering.
As a Native American woman, Harjo’s poems reflect the brutal reality of history. Washing My Mother’s Body, a poem so tender, so nostalgic, shares a history of a woman’s strength and struggle against the legacy of the “iron pot given to her by her Cherokee mother, whose mother gave it to her, given to her by the U.S. government on the Trail of Tears. “The story is all there, in her body,” and she remembers while she imagines washing her mother’s body because she could not in real life.
Harjo speaks truths with directness, fearlessly.
I’m not afraid of love
or its consequence of light.
It’s not easy to say this
or anything when my entrails
dangle between paradise
and fear.
I am ashamed
I never had the words
to carry a friend from her death
to the stars
correctly.
Or the words to keep
my people safe
from drought
or gunshot.
The stars who were created by words
are circling over this house
formed of calcium, of blood
this house
in danger of being torn apart
by stones of fear.
If these words can do anything
if these songs can do anything
I say bless this house
with stars.
Transfix us with love.
from The Creation Story by Jo Harjo
These poems seized me with their power.
I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.
January 27, 2023
4.5 stars
Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light was my first exposure to the poetry of Joy Harjo, and what a great collection it was for introducing me to her. It was great being able to be exposed to poems from across her 50 year career, seeing how her poems and themes developed and expanded across time.
Joy Harjo has such a unique and flowing poetic voice, and I found myself drawn into the worlds she weaves through her words. I loved that this collection also included her reflections on and inspiration for the poems, though I do wish they were paired directly with each poem rather than relegated to the back of the book.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.
Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light was my first exposure to the poetry of Joy Harjo, and what a great collection it was for introducing me to her. It was great being able to be exposed to poems from across her 50 year career, seeing how her poems and themes developed and expanded across time.
Joy Harjo has such a unique and flowing poetic voice, and I found myself drawn into the worlds she weaves through her words. I loved that this collection also included her reflections on and inspiration for the poems, though I do wish they were paired directly with each poem rather than relegated to the back of the book.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.
January 1, 2023
I really enjoyed this journey through Harjo's poetry. New Orleans and Santa Fe were favorite poems. I especially liked the short histories of the writing of each poem and only wish they individually followed the poem it referenced so you didn't have to go back through the pages. Jazz, music and place are all integral. I was especially moved by the story behind washing her mother's body. So many thoughts and emotions evoked, I just want to read more.
Copy provided by the publisher and NetGalley
Copy provided by the publisher and NetGalley
October 10, 2023
Joy Harjo was the first Native American U.S. Poet Laureate and she served 3 terms (2019-2022). Ada Limón is our current U.S. Poet Laureate.
"Pass this love on, he'd say.
It knows how to bend and will never break.
It's the only thing with a give and take,
The more it's used the more it makes."
(from How Love Blows Through the Trees)
I really enjoyed this collection of poetry--I didn't realize until halfway through reading this collection that Harjo had actually written notes about each poem. Sometimes I found it interesting and helpful and other times I felt like it changed the poem for me and I had rather not read her notes. I am glad she included them though, it's not common for poets to give such specific notes about their poems.
"Pass this love on, he'd say.
It knows how to bend and will never break.
It's the only thing with a give and take,
The more it's used the more it makes."
(from How Love Blows Through the Trees)
I really enjoyed this collection of poetry--I didn't realize until halfway through reading this collection that Harjo had actually written notes about each poem. Sometimes I found it interesting and helpful and other times I felt like it changed the poem for me and I had rather not read her notes. I am glad she included them though, it's not common for poets to give such specific notes about their poems.
December 29, 2023
Delighted to end my poetry reading for 2023 on such a high note. This is a new all time fave collection, featuring 50 poems from across 50 years of Harjo's poetry. The lovely foreward and notes from Harjo on the origins of each poem added a lot of insight to enhance the reading experience.
October 1, 2023
This is a fantastic collection of some of Harjo’s work. She includes stories about when she wrote them and her influences.
November 28, 2022
Out of all the forms of writing, poetry is the most subjective—depending on highly personal preferences, such as whether or not someone likes/enjoys/understands the subjects a poet dwells on, the way their prose sings (or not) with a reader, and the imagery drawn in a reader’s head, some poets connect well with some readers, and others do not. Unfortunately, this collection, unlike prior collections by Harjo, did not connect with me, and I was baffled by this conclusion, as I’ve read a few of her other collections and memoirs before and enjoyed the majority of them.
The subjects that Harjo dwells on in this career-spanning collection are wide and varied, but most of them come back to a few themes: living as a Native American woman in modern-day America and having to deal with the trauma that requires; growing up as an independent woman raising several kids while struggling to put food on the table and committing to something as deeply personal as art; and broader darker themes, such as violence against women and Native Americans over the course of America’s history, crumbling family systems, and struggling to scrape by in the economic morass that America became in the second half of the twentieth century. While that all sounds dark and depressing, there are a lot of poems thrown in that celebrate some of the subjects listed prior, such as the joy of taking control of your life and trying to forge your own destiny, the joy of seeing a sunrise over a desert mountain, and the social/mental/emotional pleasures of having a family to call your own.
Connecting with poetry oftentimes has more to do with just the subject matter though, and I think this is where I struggled with Harjo’s collection that spanned some fifty-odd years of her career—the style of the poems was all over the place, and a lot of the styles chosen for some of the poems were just not ones that I personally loved. There are a significant amount of prose poems in this collection, and people usually feel one way or the other with that style of poetry, and it oftentimes depends on both the subject of the poem and the way that the lines of prose seem to sing (or not) on the page. I just didn’t find Harjo’s language to be elevated or beautiful in most of them, and they seemed to be filled with nothing but declarative sentences and base-level descriptions of their scenes or settings.
There is also a section at the very end of the collection where Harjo reveals the inspirations behind most of the poems, and this was the highlight of the entire book for me. I loved finding out both what the poems were supposed to mean and represent and where the ideas came from, but I wished they had been introduced either before or after each poem individually. I read through all the poems at first and then discovered the section at the end, and I found it tedious to go back and forth to see which poems she was referencing. I feel like it was an uneven way to discover the magic that the poems were supposed to represent with the reader, and by having them before or after the poems and getting that immediate story along with them, the poems would’ve had much more impact with me in the moment.
At the end of the day, Harjo is a legend in the American literary community, and I understand her importance on so many levels related to both her position in the poetry world and the way she’s shattered many glass ceilings. Even though I didn’t connect with much of the work in this book, I highly recommend the collection still, as the poems would appeal to a lot of other people’s poetical tastes, and she is a master of most styles of poetry (she didn’t become a three-time U.S. Poet Laureate for nothing). And, as the subjects Harjo tackles within her poems are extremely heavy but important, I would encourage all libraries or anyone who has a large poetry library to include this volume, as career-spanning collections usually contain the work that the individual poet deems his or her most important poems, and that holds true here, especially by giving a voice to a segment of the American population that is far too often overlooked in both history books and society in general.
Thanks to NetGalley, W. W. Norton & Company, and Joy Harjo for the digital ARC of 'Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light' in exchange for an honest review.
The subjects that Harjo dwells on in this career-spanning collection are wide and varied, but most of them come back to a few themes: living as a Native American woman in modern-day America and having to deal with the trauma that requires; growing up as an independent woman raising several kids while struggling to put food on the table and committing to something as deeply personal as art; and broader darker themes, such as violence against women and Native Americans over the course of America’s history, crumbling family systems, and struggling to scrape by in the economic morass that America became in the second half of the twentieth century. While that all sounds dark and depressing, there are a lot of poems thrown in that celebrate some of the subjects listed prior, such as the joy of taking control of your life and trying to forge your own destiny, the joy of seeing a sunrise over a desert mountain, and the social/mental/emotional pleasures of having a family to call your own.
Connecting with poetry oftentimes has more to do with just the subject matter though, and I think this is where I struggled with Harjo’s collection that spanned some fifty-odd years of her career—the style of the poems was all over the place, and a lot of the styles chosen for some of the poems were just not ones that I personally loved. There are a significant amount of prose poems in this collection, and people usually feel one way or the other with that style of poetry, and it oftentimes depends on both the subject of the poem and the way that the lines of prose seem to sing (or not) on the page. I just didn’t find Harjo’s language to be elevated or beautiful in most of them, and they seemed to be filled with nothing but declarative sentences and base-level descriptions of their scenes or settings.
There is also a section at the very end of the collection where Harjo reveals the inspirations behind most of the poems, and this was the highlight of the entire book for me. I loved finding out both what the poems were supposed to mean and represent and where the ideas came from, but I wished they had been introduced either before or after each poem individually. I read through all the poems at first and then discovered the section at the end, and I found it tedious to go back and forth to see which poems she was referencing. I feel like it was an uneven way to discover the magic that the poems were supposed to represent with the reader, and by having them before or after the poems and getting that immediate story along with them, the poems would’ve had much more impact with me in the moment.
At the end of the day, Harjo is a legend in the American literary community, and I understand her importance on so many levels related to both her position in the poetry world and the way she’s shattered many glass ceilings. Even though I didn’t connect with much of the work in this book, I highly recommend the collection still, as the poems would appeal to a lot of other people’s poetical tastes, and she is a master of most styles of poetry (she didn’t become a three-time U.S. Poet Laureate for nothing). And, as the subjects Harjo tackles within her poems are extremely heavy but important, I would encourage all libraries or anyone who has a large poetry library to include this volume, as career-spanning collections usually contain the work that the individual poet deems his or her most important poems, and that holds true here, especially by giving a voice to a segment of the American population that is far too often overlooked in both history books and society in general.
Thanks to NetGalley, W. W. Norton & Company, and Joy Harjo for the digital ARC of 'Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light' in exchange for an honest review.
December 26, 2022
Harjo’s previous book of poetry An American Sunrise from 2019 may have been the best work of her long and illustrious career. With those extraordinary poems she honored her Native American heritage first by confronting the devastation inflicted upon countless indigenous families and then by celebrating the courage and resilience of persecuted people everywhere. I felt her every emotion of grief and healing, of frustration and determination, of struggle and survival.
Now with her release in 2022 of Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light, which consists of selected poems spanning her fifty years of writing, I anticipated a collection where every piece would be mesmerizing like an unforgettable sunrise or sunset. Indeed, this book has poems of tremendous emotion that give you pause and demand rereading and savoring, but those moments are just not in the same abundance as the work she produced in An American Sunrise.
Of the fifty pieces Harjo compiles, I marked eleven that I went back and reread. Those that resonated the most with me are “I Give You Back” about the strength to conquer fear, “The Rabbit Is Up to Tricks” about mankind’s obsession with taking regardless whether it destroys the planet, and “Prepare” about rebirth and renewal of both the soul of the self and the earth. As for the remainder of the selections, they came off as scattered, fragmented, and searching for their subject, their focus, their messaging, and their overall conveyance of her vision.
For sure, this can be expected from a book looking back over a writer’s long career. Much can be appreciated from seeing her development and growth from her earlier work, and that’s exactly what I felt in reading many of her early poems. I was at a loss to follow her often rambling prose pieces. Many felt like they included filler, and some had disjoined imagery and odd phrasings.
There’s no denying that splendid lines and flashes of beauty burst through in many of the pieces I did not connect with, but much of her early work came off loquacious and repetitious in finding its way with jumbles of ideas assembled for the sake of journaling or reflecting passed off as poetry.
Harjo will forever be a poet I cherish. Her body of work and her contribution to American poetry are astounding and unparalleled, but Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light does not shine to me as the brightest representation of her greatness.
Now with her release in 2022 of Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light, which consists of selected poems spanning her fifty years of writing, I anticipated a collection where every piece would be mesmerizing like an unforgettable sunrise or sunset. Indeed, this book has poems of tremendous emotion that give you pause and demand rereading and savoring, but those moments are just not in the same abundance as the work she produced in An American Sunrise.
Of the fifty pieces Harjo compiles, I marked eleven that I went back and reread. Those that resonated the most with me are “I Give You Back” about the strength to conquer fear, “The Rabbit Is Up to Tricks” about mankind’s obsession with taking regardless whether it destroys the planet, and “Prepare” about rebirth and renewal of both the soul of the self and the earth. As for the remainder of the selections, they came off as scattered, fragmented, and searching for their subject, their focus, their messaging, and their overall conveyance of her vision.
For sure, this can be expected from a book looking back over a writer’s long career. Much can be appreciated from seeing her development and growth from her earlier work, and that’s exactly what I felt in reading many of her early poems. I was at a loss to follow her often rambling prose pieces. Many felt like they included filler, and some had disjoined imagery and odd phrasings.
There’s no denying that splendid lines and flashes of beauty burst through in many of the pieces I did not connect with, but much of her early work came off loquacious and repetitious in finding its way with jumbles of ideas assembled for the sake of journaling or reflecting passed off as poetry.
Harjo will forever be a poet I cherish. Her body of work and her contribution to American poetry are astounding and unparalleled, but Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light does not shine to me as the brightest representation of her greatness.
February 10, 2023
This is a spiritual experience. At the end of the book the author explains how each poem came to be and what it honors.
Makes me want to start writing again.
Makes me want to start writing again.
August 10, 2022
5 stars
Joy Harjo's collection of 50 poems for 50 years clearly reflects all of the reasons her work has rapidly risen to its canonical standing, and the presentation of this particular grouping is exceptional.
Anyone who considers reading this book will likely have a sense of what to expect as Harjo has such a characteristic voice and style. Her attention to feminine experience, connection to nature and physical spaces in general, and exploration of deep human truths all come through clearly in the selections published here. As one of the (far too) few indigenous writers who receives regular popular attention, Harjo reveals both culturally relevant and widely accessible themes and motifs. Whether the reader is a practiced explicator of poetry or just coming to the text because that name sounds familiar, everyone will find a way to connect here.
Having been familiar with (and taught) Harjo's work for many years, I expected a fantastic collection of poetry, but the added surprises of Harjo's relatively thorough notes at the end and Sandra Cisneros's warm tribute at the start make this text a fitting culmination of a thus far outstanding career (with hopefully many years and many memorable poems still to come).
*Special thanks to NetGalley and W.W. Norton & Company for this arc, which I received in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
Joy Harjo's collection of 50 poems for 50 years clearly reflects all of the reasons her work has rapidly risen to its canonical standing, and the presentation of this particular grouping is exceptional.
Anyone who considers reading this book will likely have a sense of what to expect as Harjo has such a characteristic voice and style. Her attention to feminine experience, connection to nature and physical spaces in general, and exploration of deep human truths all come through clearly in the selections published here. As one of the (far too) few indigenous writers who receives regular popular attention, Harjo reveals both culturally relevant and widely accessible themes and motifs. Whether the reader is a practiced explicator of poetry or just coming to the text because that name sounds familiar, everyone will find a way to connect here.
Having been familiar with (and taught) Harjo's work for many years, I expected a fantastic collection of poetry, but the added surprises of Harjo's relatively thorough notes at the end and Sandra Cisneros's warm tribute at the start make this text a fitting culmination of a thus far outstanding career (with hopefully many years and many memorable poems still to come).
*Special thanks to NetGalley and W.W. Norton & Company for this arc, which I received in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
October 19, 2022
Even if you somehow aren't already a great fan of Joy Harjo and her earth-connected, ancestor-honoring, child-celebrating, grounded love poetry, you should read this book. It's a beautiful review of a career that struggled in and out of wider support and stayed consistently on track, with a poet who is also a visual artist and jazz musician but chose poetry as the lifeline she needed to tell her story.
Here, in Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light, Harjo shares 50 poems for her 50 years as a poet, which was capped off by the conclusion of her third term last year as our nation's first Native American/indigenous poet laureate.
The intro by novelist Sandra Cisneros, who studied at the Iowa Writer's Workshop with Joy Harjo in the early years of their writing careers, is a wise essay that alone makes the book worth the price of admission. Cisneros' admiring, authentic bit of remembrance shows us Joy's integrity and fierceness as a young, single mother living in student housing, and then after as she left a tenured position to protest unfettered sexual harrasment on campus. Cisneros' piece is followed not only by Joy's 50 favorite poems but also by a mini-essay about each poem from Harjo, in which she explains where she was in her life (literally and figuratively),what the poem meant to her, and what she hopes it means to you.
Covering as it does half a century, this is a rich, rewarding book. About halfway through, in "For Calling the Spirit Back from Wandering the Earth in its Human Feet," she urges a half-human/ half=ghost to "turn off that cellphone, computer, and remote control...." "Let the earth stabilize your postcolonial, insecure jitters" and, "Don't worry. The heart knows the way though there may be high-rises, interstates, checkpoints, armed soldiers, massacres, wars, and those who will despise you because they despise themselves." Once you make your way to the fire that kept burning for you, you must hold no regrets and must "cut the ties you have to failure and shame."
Harjo wants for all of her readers, though especially indigenous women, to find their voices, to come into their own. In "A Postcolonial Tale," she recalls that "Once we abandoned ourselves for television, the box that separates the dreamer from the dreaming." In "I Give You Back," she tells fear she is done with him: "I take myself back, fear. You are not my shadow any longer." Her romantic poems (such as "To My Man's Feet") are rich with powerful physical love that transcends time and trouble. Her memories stretch back before this life. She knows that no matter how bleak things look, we are always in a cycle, waiting for the earth to turn back to greatness. I felt nourished by this collection.
Here, in Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light, Harjo shares 50 poems for her 50 years as a poet, which was capped off by the conclusion of her third term last year as our nation's first Native American/indigenous poet laureate.
The intro by novelist Sandra Cisneros, who studied at the Iowa Writer's Workshop with Joy Harjo in the early years of their writing careers, is a wise essay that alone makes the book worth the price of admission. Cisneros' admiring, authentic bit of remembrance shows us Joy's integrity and fierceness as a young, single mother living in student housing, and then after as she left a tenured position to protest unfettered sexual harrasment on campus. Cisneros' piece is followed not only by Joy's 50 favorite poems but also by a mini-essay about each poem from Harjo, in which she explains where she was in her life (literally and figuratively),what the poem meant to her, and what she hopes it means to you.
Covering as it does half a century, this is a rich, rewarding book. About halfway through, in "For Calling the Spirit Back from Wandering the Earth in its Human Feet," she urges a half-human/ half=ghost to "turn off that cellphone, computer, and remote control...." "Let the earth stabilize your postcolonial, insecure jitters" and, "Don't worry. The heart knows the way though there may be high-rises, interstates, checkpoints, armed soldiers, massacres, wars, and those who will despise you because they despise themselves." Once you make your way to the fire that kept burning for you, you must hold no regrets and must "cut the ties you have to failure and shame."
Harjo wants for all of her readers, though especially indigenous women, to find their voices, to come into their own. In "A Postcolonial Tale," she recalls that "Once we abandoned ourselves for television, the box that separates the dreamer from the dreaming." In "I Give You Back," she tells fear she is done with him: "I take myself back, fear. You are not my shadow any longer." Her romantic poems (such as "To My Man's Feet") are rich with powerful physical love that transcends time and trouble. Her memories stretch back before this life. She knows that no matter how bleak things look, we are always in a cycle, waiting for the earth to turn back to greatness. I felt nourished by this collection.
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September 15, 2023Some really beautiful stuff in here.
January 9, 2024
When asked who my favorite poet is, I say “Joy Harjo.” When asked my favorite poem, I say “I can’t decide.” This collection speaks truth to that. Until I can decide, I will say “all of them.”
March 16, 2023
This book is a treasure. The poems were wonderful companions for my contemplative mornings and Harjo’s notes on each poem feel like being in a master class with a great and wise being. Thank you, Joy Harjo, for your example as a poet and caretaker of this earth.
February 19, 2024
Many of the poems here bore meanings and themes that I couldn’t fully grasp - which should have been no surprise. They are after all birthed from various contexts from Joy Harjo’s life as an indigenous woman (amongst other parts of her unique personal identity), whereas I’m a Caucasian male born and raised in southern New England. However, I still enjoyed the lyricism of her words and the various forms they took as outlets of her expression, and also the time I spent trying to muse over the potential themes. Meanwhile, those poems whose greater meanings I could recognize (or were at least spelled out pretty plainly, as far as I could interpret) more often than not were able to immediately reach straight to my spirit in some shape, and made for even better reflection afterwards. Also, as one can probably imagine, I was quite pleased to finish all fifty poems to then find context from Harjo on each and every one - giving me not only background information and expanded understanding, but a greater potential to appreciate them even more.
To be blunt though, I’m not fully sure others need to hear of my own personal experience in order to decide whether they want to explore Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light. After all, it’s a collection of poems from Joy Harjo. Even if she didn’t officially bear the title of Poet Laureate, she’s still one of the contemporary greats. Honestly, what’s not to be enjoyed here?
To be blunt though, I’m not fully sure others need to hear of my own personal experience in order to decide whether they want to explore Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light. After all, it’s a collection of poems from Joy Harjo. Even if she didn’t officially bear the title of Poet Laureate, she’s still one of the contemporary greats. Honestly, what’s not to be enjoyed here?
November 25, 2022
Thank you to the publishers for an advance copy of this book. All I can say is that it is beautiful, and that I always feel such gratitude to read Joy Harjo’s words. An introduction by Sandra Cisneros made it even better. 🖤
July 20, 2022
Devastatingly beautiful and haunting. Even if you're not a poetry lover--give this one a shot.
May 2, 2023
Unfortunately, not my jam.
October 28, 2023
i really wanted to like this...i tried really hard to like this.........but...........well...................
July 26, 2023
Joy Harjo served 3 terms as US Poet Laureate (2019-2022). She is a member of the Creek Nation, and the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships. Harjo selected 50 poems from 50 years of writing to compile this collection, which consists of 3 parts: the brilliant forward by Sandra Cisneros, which could stand on its own, the poems, and finally, the gift of Harjo's notes, where she talks about the background, process, and inspiration for each poem.
Through the trajectory of these poems you can see the poet finding her distinctive voice. Native American culture is evident in the musical rhythm, in the story-telling aspect, and in the poems filled with social justice. Harjo's poems look deeply inward, and they move beyond personal to universal. They exhort us to pay attention and to bear witness, not only to injustice but to the beauty of the earth. This book is so much larger than a timeline of Harjo's writing and craft; it is a timeline of her life. Filled with nature and a connection to the earth, there are poems of joy, of sorrow. of beauty and of myth.
I'm not going to quote as I feel that Harjo's poems need to be read in their entirety to truly be appreciated. Better yet, read them aloud and revel in the musicality and beauty of the language.
Through the trajectory of these poems you can see the poet finding her distinctive voice. Native American culture is evident in the musical rhythm, in the story-telling aspect, and in the poems filled with social justice. Harjo's poems look deeply inward, and they move beyond personal to universal. They exhort us to pay attention and to bear witness, not only to injustice but to the beauty of the earth. This book is so much larger than a timeline of Harjo's writing and craft; it is a timeline of her life. Filled with nature and a connection to the earth, there are poems of joy, of sorrow. of beauty and of myth.
I'm not going to quote as I feel that Harjo's poems need to be read in their entirety to truly be appreciated. Better yet, read them aloud and revel in the musicality and beauty of the language.
March 28, 2024
She speaks right to me.
From "The Woman Hanging from the Thirteenth-floor Window": "She thinks of her father, and of her mother. / She thinks of all the women she has been, of all / the men. She thinks of the color of her skin, and / of Chicago streets, and of waterfalls and pines. / She thinks of moonlight nights, and of cool spring storms. / Her mind chatters like neon and northside bars. / She thinks of 4 a.m. lonelinesses that have folded / her up like death, discordant, without logical and / beautiful conclusion."
From "Bird": "To survive is sometimes a leap into madness."
From "Redbird Love": "In the end / There was only one. / There's that one you circle back to—for home."
From "How Love Blows Through Trees": "Pass this love on, he'd say. / It knows how to bend and will never break. / It's the only thing with a give and take. / The more it's used the more it makes."
From "Speaking Tree": "I carry a yearning I cannot bear alone in the dark— // What shall I do with all this heartache?"
From "Remember" (this entire poem!!!): "I have a memory. / It swims deep in blood, / It swims out of Oklahoma, / deep the Mississippi River."
From "The Woman Hanging from the Thirteenth-floor Window": "She thinks of her father, and of her mother. / She thinks of all the women she has been, of all / the men. She thinks of the color of her skin, and / of Chicago streets, and of waterfalls and pines. / She thinks of moonlight nights, and of cool spring storms. / Her mind chatters like neon and northside bars. / She thinks of 4 a.m. lonelinesses that have folded / her up like death, discordant, without logical and / beautiful conclusion."
From "Bird": "To survive is sometimes a leap into madness."
From "Redbird Love": "In the end / There was only one. / There's that one you circle back to—for home."
From "How Love Blows Through Trees": "Pass this love on, he'd say. / It knows how to bend and will never break. / It's the only thing with a give and take. / The more it's used the more it makes."
From "Speaking Tree": "I carry a yearning I cannot bear alone in the dark— // What shall I do with all this heartache?"
From "Remember" (this entire poem!!!): "I have a memory. / It swims deep in blood, / It swims out of Oklahoma, / deep the Mississippi River."
October 20, 2022
I was so glad to read this book of poems, it came at a time when I really needed some of these words. So many of these poems were impactful to me. Joy’s use of time and space was wonderful and interesting. What I most enjoyed was the element at the end of the book where Joy shares stories about the meaning or the birth of each of the poems. I wish that the book was arranged so that those stories fell directly after the poems, instead of all the poems being in one section and then all the stories and explanations in the next. It was frustrating to try and go back to the poems on my Kindle, and I felt the need to reread many of the poems after reading Joy’s additional writing about them. I will definitely be keeping some of these poems in my journal, and I will look forward to seeking out more of her work in the future, this was a phenomenal introduction.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, W. W. Norton & Company, for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for this honest review!!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, W. W. Norton & Company, for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for this honest review!!
December 13, 2023
I have loved Harjo from the first page of her’s I read, and something that I just can’t explain. I bought this on its release last year and then it was buried in my TBR, maybe that was a good thing, maybe I wasn’t ready for this collection until now. Now it was perfection.
Harjo selected 50 poems from her 50 year career playing with different themes and styles. Pairing each poem with a note at the end that moves between inspiration, to connections, to craft. For those that like to really dig into poetry the note section is a gift.
I was surprised to see how the different poems resonated with me, I’ve always felt a kinship with her poems on love and loss, but this time I found myself drawn to poems pushing back on war and genocide. I don’t post a lot on international events, because I have little to add to the conversation and I do not want to draw attention from more knowledgeable and researched sources, but here in this collection are poems that help me to understand the horrors we are witnessing, especially in Gaza and beyond.
In her notes on “No” Harjo writes:
“There have been wars since greed, envy, jealousy and hatred have existed in humans. I like to believe there will be a time and place when this is not so.” (116)
Me too, Joy, my too.
Harjo selected 50 poems from her 50 year career playing with different themes and styles. Pairing each poem with a note at the end that moves between inspiration, to connections, to craft. For those that like to really dig into poetry the note section is a gift.
I was surprised to see how the different poems resonated with me, I’ve always felt a kinship with her poems on love and loss, but this time I found myself drawn to poems pushing back on war and genocide. I don’t post a lot on international events, because I have little to add to the conversation and I do not want to draw attention from more knowledgeable and researched sources, but here in this collection are poems that help me to understand the horrors we are witnessing, especially in Gaza and beyond.
In her notes on “No” Harjo writes:
“There have been wars since greed, envy, jealousy and hatred have existed in humans. I like to believe there will be a time and place when this is not so.” (116)
Me too, Joy, my too.
November 29, 2023
An American Sunrise
We were running out of breath, as we ran out to meet ourselves. We
were surfacing the edge of our ancestors’ fights, and ready to strike.
It was difficult to lose days in the Indian bar if you were straight.
Easy if you played pool and drank to remember to forget. We
made plans to be professional — and did. And some of us could sing
so we drummed a fire-lit pathway up to those starry stars. Sin
was invented by the Christians, as was the Devil, we sang. We
were the heathens, but needed to be saved from them — thin
chance. We knew we were all related in this story, a little gin
will clarify the dark and make us all feel like dancing. We
had something to do with the origins of blues and jazz
I argued with a Pueblo as I filled the jukebox with dimes in June,
forty years later and we still want justice. We are still America. We
know the rumors of our demise. We spit them out. They die
soon.
We were running out of breath, as we ran out to meet ourselves. We
were surfacing the edge of our ancestors’ fights, and ready to strike.
It was difficult to lose days in the Indian bar if you were straight.
Easy if you played pool and drank to remember to forget. We
made plans to be professional — and did. And some of us could sing
so we drummed a fire-lit pathway up to those starry stars. Sin
was invented by the Christians, as was the Devil, we sang. We
were the heathens, but needed to be saved from them — thin
chance. We knew we were all related in this story, a little gin
will clarify the dark and make us all feel like dancing. We
had something to do with the origins of blues and jazz
I argued with a Pueblo as I filled the jukebox with dimes in June,
forty years later and we still want justice. We are still America. We
know the rumors of our demise. We spit them out. They die
soon.
November 30, 2022
A great collection of Harjo's poetry over her past 50 years of writing! There was one poem that really captured me with where my brain is at right now, Break My Heart. For the works spanning 50 years, Harjo maintained a consistent voice, which I thought was impressive!
April 5, 2023
I can’t imagine what 50 years of my work would look like. Although I am 32 years into writing an annual holiday short story for friends and family. A highlight for me was the authors notes on the inspiration and writing process for each poem. It was insightful to hear the backstory.
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